A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the first Pink Floyd album not to feature Roger Waters. Waters quit the band in 1985 due to increasingly strained relationships between him and the other members. The album was created after Waters attempted to appeal to the high court to prevent the use of the name Pink Floyd from being used by them. Gilmour enlisted the other band members Nick Mason and Richard Wright (the latter of whom had left the band in 1979) o work on the album in order to legitimize his claim to the name over Roger's.

Due to the minimalized contributions of Mason and Wright (and Waters' absence), A Momentary Lapse of Reason could theoretically be considered Gilmour's third solo album, much in the same way that the previous album The Final Cut could be considered a de facto Roger Waters solo album for the same reason.

The cover shows 700 hospital beds placed on the Devon coast. This effect was not achieved with trick photography; a team actually hauled the wrought iron beds over three hours from London to Devon and arranged them as seen on the finished design. When the team realized that the shoot would take more than one day, a single bed was left on the beach to see if the sea would have any effect on it over night. When they returned the following morning, the bed was nowhere to be found. Long-time Pink Floyd collaborator Storm Thorgerson produced the artwork.

In the gatefold sleeve was a portrait of David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright making it the first time that a picture of the members of Pink Floyd appeared in a gatefold sleeve since 1971's Meddle album (not counting a poster of the band members on stage that came with vinyl copies of The Dark Side Of The Moon in 1973)

A Momentary Lapse of Reason is Pink Floyd's first fully digital recording; however, the acoustic drums and bass guitar tracks were recorded on analog equipment.

The R.I.A.A. have certified the album:

Gold, Platinum (November 1987)

Double Platinum (January 1988)

Triple Platinum (February 1992)

Quadruple Platinum (August 2001)

A Momentary Lapse of Reason was released on the same day in the UK as Bad by Michael Jackson and Actually by The Pet Shop Boys, both of which topped it at the 1st and 2nd positions in the following week's album charts. It debuted at No. 3 and never rose any higher. The album also reached No. 3 in the US as Bad and Whitesnake's Whitesnake '87 occupied the top two spots.